


Tangled

by fangirling-feels (xGwenxVeerx)



Category: Disney - All Media Types, Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Tangled (2010), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Disney AU, F/M, Fluff, Originally Posted on Tumblr, based on the disney movie (duh), everything, tangled
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-05
Updated: 2016-07-21
Packaged: 2018-07-21 18:30:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 11,771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7398712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xGwenxVeerx/pseuds/fangirling-feels
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After receiving the healing powers from a magical flower, the baby girl [Y/N] is kidnapped from her house in the middle of the night by Mother Gothel. Mother Gothel knows that the flower’s magical powers are now growing within the golden hair of [Y/N], and to stay young, she must lock [Y/N] in her hidden tower. [Y/N] is now a teenager and her hair has grown to a length of 70-feet. The beautiful [Y/N] has been in the tower her entire life, and she is curious of the outside world. One day, the bandit Bucky Barnes scales the tower and is taken captive by [Y/N]. She strikes a deal with the charming thief to act as her guide to travel to the place where the floating lights come from that she has seen every year on her birthday. [Y/N] is about to have the most exciting and magnificent journey of her life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Because why not combine the two most amazing things in the whole universe? I mean, that's basically what I did here. I hope that you all enjoy this! Next chapter will be uploaded soon :3

This is the story of how I died.  
Don’t worry, this is actually a very fun story and the truth is, it isn’t even mine.  
This is the story of a girl named [Y/N] and it starts with the sun.  
Now, once upon a time, a single drop of sunlight fell from heavens and from this small drop of sun grew a magic, golden flower. It had the abbility to heal the sick and injured.  
And this, ladies and gentlepeople, attracted a very old woman. She isn’t very important now, but she will be soon in the story. You might want to remember her.  
Well, centuries passed, and a hop skip and a boat ride away there grew a village. In this village there lived a beautiful lady with her husband.  
And this woman, well, she was about to have a baby when she got sick. Really sick. She was running out of time, and that’s when people usually start to look for a miracle. Or in this case, a magic golden flower.  
And here’s where the old woman is becoming very important. You see, instead of sharing the sun’s gift, this woman, Mother Gothel, hoarded its healing power and used it to keep herself young for hundreds of years, and all she had to do was sing a special song.  
“Flower, gleam and glow, let your power shine. Make the clock reverse, bring  
back what once was mine. What once was mine.”  
Okay you get the gist. She sings to it, she turns young. Creepy, right?  
“We’ve found it!”  
The magic of the golden flower healed the lady. A healthy baby girl was born, with beautiful golden hair. I’ll give you a hint: that’s [Y/N].  
To celebrate her birth, the lady and her husband launched a flying lantern into the sky. And for that moment, everything was perfect.  
And then that moment ended. You see, Gothel tried to take the healing power that was now with the little girl, but it didn’t work. She broke into their house, stole the child and just like that - gone.  
The couple searched and searched but they could not find their daughter. For deep within the forest, Gothel raised the child as her own.  
“Heal what has been hurt, change the fate’s design. Save what has been lost, bring back what once was mine. What once was mine.”  
Gothel found her new magic flower, but this time she was determined to keep it hidden.  
“Why can’t I go outside?” “The outside world is a dangerous place, filled with horrrible. selfish people. You must stay here, where you’re safe. Do you understand, flower?” “Yes, mommy.”  
But the walls of that tower could not hide everything. Each year, on her birthday the lady and her husband released thousands of lanterns into the sky, in hope that one day, their lost daughter would return.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For if you haven't guessed it already, it's a certain guy named James and Disney Movie


	2. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aanndd first chapter! What do you all think of it? 
> 
> For the upcoming days I'll post like a chapter a day but I am going to say sorry in advance because I only have written 7 chapters in total... woops...
> 
> *I'm working on the next chapter though*

The lonely tower was surrounded by beautiful mountains, long trees and small puddles with colourful flowers. The stones of the tower looked mossy and old, as if there hadn’t been anyone in years taking care of the outside of the tower.

If you wouldn’t have known it, you would have probably thought that there didn’t live anybody in the valley. However, up in the tower, there lived a beautiful young girl, with long, golden hair. There wasn’t anybody near the valley who wanted to meet her or even possessed the knowledge that she was there. The only two people to know where she lived were her Mother and a good friend of her. His name was Pascal.

Okay, so maybe Pascal wasn’t really human, but he was the closest the girl ever had to a friend. The little chameleon held her company whenever her mother wasn’t at home. Normally, the both where around the tower, doing little activities.

As for now however, Pascal was running away from [Y/N]. He crawled through the blinds of the window, trying to hide from the girl so that she wouldn’t find him. He found his spot in front of a flowerpot, changing his outer colours to match the flowerpot. Pascal stayed there, trying to be as quiet as possible, while catching his breath.

It didn’t work. He wasn’t even there for two seconds or a small strand of hair tied around his tale and drew him away from his hiding spot, setting him in front of [Y/N]. She flicked away her hair and looked at him, sitting on the windowsill.

“That’s 22 for me. Want to make it 23 out of 45?”

He looked at here, shaking his head. It didn’t matter how hard he tried, he would always loose from her.

“Okay, well, what do you want to do?”

He pointed with his tail to the world around the tower. He was eager to go outside and he knew she was too.

“Yeah, I don’t think so,” she said, while moving her legs so that she was sitting with her back to the room where she came from. “I like it in here,” her eyes moved to what was behind her as she continued with talking. “And so do you.”

He pointed his tongue towards her.

“O come on Pascal, it is not so bad in here. I mean, we do cleaning together. It was fun this morning, right? Or each morning. And the books I read afterwards were amazing! And just until now we played hide and seek, which was fun too.”

He shook his head unimpressed. He was still believing that it was better outside of the tower.

“What can we do then?”

She had turned her attention away from Pascal, looking around the tower for stuff to do. Her eyes fell on her painting supplies.

“I know it! Another painting!”

Soon enough, there were some new paintings added to her walls. They began to fill completely, and it wouldn’t take long for her or she wouldn’t have any space left. After setting away her painting supplies, she decided that it would be a good idea to bake a cake.

But it wasn’t enough. It didn’t matter what she did, it never felt complete. Pascal was right, going outside sounded like a lot of fun, but it would be dangerous for her to go. Besides, her mother told her not to go, so why would she anyways?

Taking the cakes out of the oven she looked up to her wall. There was a big piece covered by drapes that would be big enough for another drawing. It didn’t even take her long to figure out what to draw.

The floating lights.

They appeared each year on her birthday, and she had studied the stars enough to understand that these lights couldn’t be stars.

Okay, back to what she was doing.

Her hair needed to be brushed. Doing that would take ages, so it was better to do it early on the day than later in the evening when she needed to sleep. Cutting it was a definite no-go, since that would mean that it would lose its power. As for now, her hair was over seventy foot long and still growing, although it didn’t grow as fast as it used to do. She took her brush from the stand next to the tall mirror and sat down.

While brushing her hair, all that [Y/N] could think of was going outside of the tower to see the floating lights. She was turning twenty-one this year, so there was the slight opportunity that her mother would let her go.

She looked outside the window. Ow, how much did she want to go out.


	3. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Couldn't wait to post this chapter... woops

His eyes moved over the forest underneath him. It was still dawn and the sunlight played around with the leaves of the many trees. He sighed, taking in his surroundings. The world around him looked beautiful, even though he had seen parts of the world he now lived in that he wanted to change now more than ever.

Okay, the world he used to live in wasn’t as beautiful as the world in front of him, but at least it wasn’t as messed up as it was now. Technology started to take over the world around him and people stopped caring about what was going on around them.   
“Wow. I could get used to a view like this.” He exclaimed, looking at the people who were with him in the helicarrier. Even though he didn’t knew everyone of them, they seemed to accept him in their group. It was something he didn’t understand, after all that he did to ruin the world more.  
“Sadly, we have to go further and leave the view on it’s own.”  
Bucky looked to the guy behind him. He was a teammate from Steve, and even though he told Bucky his name almost every day, he still forgot it. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to remember it, but the information that he had to take in everyday was just too much to take.   
“Does everyone remember what they have to do?”  
Steve’s voice sounded through the helicarrier. As usual he took the lead, or at least that’s what the other people told him. Bucky still had problems seeing Steve as the leader, while he used to remember him as the small kid from Brooklyn that was his best friend.  
Steve sometimes told him that they were still friends after they both went to war, even after little Steve got turned into this version of Steve. Memories sometimes came back to him but he couldn’t remember it. He wished he could. He wished that he still had his memories with him. He wished that he never had fallen down in the first place and that he never got in the hands of HYDRA.  
He had wanted to stay away from them as far away as possible, not wanting to be turned in the weapon again that he used to be. For today, that plan was failing. The team decided that they needed documents from an HYDRA base and they wanted him to go with them. It was either going with them on a mission he didn’t want to go on or staying in New York on his own and even though he didn’t want to go with the team on the mission, he didn’t want to stay alone either, afraid of what he could do or what could happen.  
And now he was there, in the helicarrier, on his way to an HYDRA base he didn’t want to go to with people that he didn’t really know, admiring a view that he probably wouldn’t be able to see again after this experience.  
“Bucky?”  
He looked at Steve with a puzzled expression on his face. He completely forgot that he got asked a question and that the people around him were looking at him as if he was a complete freak. His thoughts had decided to take a complete different route from what was going on around him and he didn’t pay attention to what was happening. Luckily for him he remembered what Steve had asked him in the first place, so he didn’t need to make a complete fool of himself.  
“Go in, find the documents, kill everyone who tries to stop us, come back to the helicarrier and leave. Got it.”  
The look Steve gave him told him that what he said was right, but that they weren’t really happy that he didn’t pay attention. He didn’t like it either. On those moments his mind just left him standing alone, searching for memories and places that he couldn’t remember.   
“Are you alright Buck?”  
He just nodded, not wanting to say words, afraid that they would be the wrong ones.  
From the front of the ship came the voice of Stark. He wanted to make sure that the rest of the team would arrive save, even though he wouldn’t be helping with the mission. Bucky didn’t really understand why, but Tony wanted to be in this place for something family related. If that was what he wanted, then who was Bucky to stop him from it?  
“We’re here. is everybody ready?”  
A small nod came from Bucky, still not wanting to say much. His mind wasn’t back yet, still thinking about the old memories he lost. He could feel that the helicarrier was slowly getting closer to the ground. Even though it was a smaller version from the ones Bucky once saw, he always wondered how they could land without getting noticed. Maybe it was just because was HYDRA was stupid. Yeah, that was probably it.  
The doors of the helicarrier opened, and for a minute all Bucky could see was trees and a couple of his teammates slowly walking out towards them. Everything was dead silence, even the forest didn’t want to make sounds. That was until gunshots came from around the helicarrier.  
So there were people who noticed them.   
A small tap against his shoulder made him aware of the fact that it was now or never. Steve told him that they needed to be quick, since the defenses put up by the witch chick - Bucky swore he could remember her name but just not now - wouldn’t last forever.  
And so they sprinted as fast as they could towards forest.

He was sure that they were running in the wrong direction. Of course, there weren’t any people following them or trying to shoot them - how did they even manage that? - but there wasn’t anything other than trees around them for a secure five minutes. He wanted to turn towards Steve to ask him if they were going in the right direction but it didn’t seem like the smartest idea ever. Besides that, a small building appeared right in front of them. Bucky could swear that it wasn’t there before, but it didn’t matter. They were there, and they had to get the documents before it was too late.

Getting in was easy. getting out however, was like they entered a war zone. All around them were soldiers aligned to fight them. Bucky should have known that everything had went way too easy. he should have known, should have noticed, but he didn’t.   
Taking his gun in his hand he tried to shoot as much of the HYDRA soldiers as possible, while running away from them. It was an easy job if that was all he had to take care of. Now he had a couple of documents in his hand - why they were still in the old fashioned way was something he didn’t really understand - and he had to make sure that he and Steve stayed together. He didn’t really pay attention when running towards the building or during the meetings, so Steve was the only one knowing which way too go.  
Somewhere along the way the redhead decided to join in the fight. Even though Bucky couldn’t really tell the exact moment that she joined, he was more than happy that she was there. There were simply to many people to fight on his own, and even with Steve next to him he still wasn’t sure that they would win the fight.  
He was glad that she was there to take over a part from the fight. However, it wouldn’t help. There were way more people than they would have thought and Bucky had the idea that even Steve wouldn’t have known that there would be so many soldiers trying to stop them.  
It was now or never. They were stuck in the forest, stopped running because it was safer to just stand and fight, but they needed to get away to make sure that the documents were safe.  
He shared a short look with both Steve and Natasha, trying to get them to know that they needed to run away.   
While Steve was still busy fighting the enemy - not that Bucky wasn’t doing that, he was trying to gun down three men at the same time while attempting to communicate - Natasha noticed his half ass attempts to let them know that they needed to go or they would be stuck there, in some forest somewhere in America, not being able to go back home.   
She nodded, knowing what he meant. They had practiced this over and over at the tower and if they wouldn’t use this plan of action they had to hope that the fates liked them, because otherwise they were stuck.  
She quickly grabbed something from her left hip, and threw it in between the fight. The moment that the bomblike thing touched the ground a thick, grey substance spread around them. Bucky made sure to have his mask in front of his face from the start, and if he remembered correctly Steve also had his one on.   
And now all that was left was to run.

Bucky wasn’t sure how long he was running or if Steve or Natasha was anywhere close to him. The bomb had a gas in it that didn’t only knock out everyone in direct contact with it, the moment it exploded it sent a signal out to the helicarrier that meant that they were having problems. Everyone from the team trained with it and knew that whenever it was used either run from it or too it, depending on where they were. The only problem of the invention?

It was just run. Nothing else, and that meant that Bucky was now lost somewhere in the woods, lost and alone and hoping that even just one of his teammates would find him soon.   
Where even was he? When flying over the forest he didn’t remember to see mountains. Had he run of that far? Or maybe he just hadn’t paid much attention to anything but the forest.   
He saw a small cove with a lot of plants in front of it. If someone would have just walked past it, they might wouldn’t have noticed that there was something there.   
But he did.   
Something told him to walk towards it. Brushing away the plants, he noticed that it was way bigger than he originally thought, and that he could easily walk through it.   
He didn’t know why, but he did it. Behind it was something he never thought he would see.

A beautiful valley with a tall tower in the middle, standing alone and isolated from the world. 

Where did he end up?


	4. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *me realizes that she is probably fucking up the whole story slowly, chapter by chapter...* SOOORRRYYY

[Y/N] was trying to not get distracted by the painting that she made on her wall while putting away all of her supplies. She was afraid to talk to her mother, but at the same time excited to ask her about the lanterns.

“[Y/N], let down your hair!”  
She looked at the little chameleon sitting on her shoulder. He sat up straight as she sighed. It’s time. She had to ask her mother now, otherwise it would never happen.  
“I know, I know. Come on, don’t let her see you.” she said as she put Pascal on top of the dried painting as she closed the curtains hanging in front of them.  
“[Y/N], I’m not getting any younger down here!”  
She walked up to the window. “Coming mother!” She threw a loop of her hair over the hook hanging on the outside of the tower, throwing the rest of her hair all the way down to the ground were her mother was standing.   
Then came the hardest part. She never wanted to admit it but getting her mother up in the tower was something not that easy. Even though it became a less hard task to do over the years, she still wished there was a different way to get her mother up where she lived.   
“Hai, welcome home mother.” [Y/N] said as her mother set foot in the windowsill, taking her hair out of the hook. She was trying to get her breath back, which wasn’t completely working.  
“Ugh, [Y/N], how you manage to do that every single day without fail?” Her mother looked worried as she put one of her hands on [Y/N]’s shoulder. “It looks absolutly exhausting darling.” Her hands softly stroked her hair while saying this.  
[Y/N] didn’t want to admit that it was exhausting. Still trying to get her breath back, she answered her mother. “Oh, it’s nothing.”  
A little bop on her nose accompanied her mothers answer. “Then I don’t know why it took you so long.” She laughed as she saw [Y/N]’s disappointed face. “I’m just teasing, don’t take everything so seriously!”   
Her mother turned to the long mirror standing in the room. [Y/N] chuckled nervously as she followed her to the mirror. It was now or never.  
“Alright, mother, I wanted to ask you something. As you know tommorow is a ve-” [Y/N] was cut off by her mother who started talking to her while looking in the mirror. “Do you see what I see, [Y/N]? I see a strong, confident, beautiful young lady. Oh look, you’re here too!”  
She pointed towards [Y/N] and started laughing. “I’m just teasing, don’t take everything so seriously!”  
[Y/N] stood in front of the mirror, looking worried to herself. Standing next to her mother she realized that she was less than her. Less strong, less confident, less beautiful, less…  
Less perfect.   
But it didn’t matter right now. Now she needed to know the answer to the question that she wanted to ask her mother for hours now.   
“Yeah, well, as I was saying, tommorow-” “[Y/N],mother’s feeling a little bit down.” She sat down in the rocking chair standing in front of the little stool, holding a hairbrush. “Would you sing for me dear? That’ll do.”  
[Y/N] set down at the stool, a rush of energy suddenly flowing through her. “Sure!” She started singing the song her mother had learned her since she could talk, making her hair glow and giving it their special healing powers. Normally, she would take her time doing this task. This time however, she rushed through the lyrics as she wanted to ask her mother so badly about the floating lights. “Flower gleam and glow, let your power shine, make the clock reverse,” “Wait!” Bring back what once was mine.“ "Wait!” Heal what has been hurt, change the fates design, save what has been lost, bring back what once mine.“  
Her mother sounded irritated when she called out her daughters name. She obviously wasn’t happy with what just happy. [Y/N] could hear that, but she didn’t want to pay too much attention to it. She was already dying inside, she didn’t need to completely fall apart. "So, mother, as I was trying to tell you earlier, tomorrow is a very special day. It’s my birthday!” Her mother looked at her with a shocked expression on her face. “No, no, can’t be. I distinctly remember, your birthday was last year!”   
[Y/N] laughed when she heard her mother say that. “That’s the funny thing about birthdays, they are kind off an annual thing! Anyway, since I’m turning twenty-one I wanted to - uh - I wanted to ask,” Without noticing [Y/N] started mumbling her words. Now that she actually was saying them, she felt growing more insecure with the second. “Actually, what I really want for my birth-, what I want for my birth-” “[Y/N] stop it with the mumbling! You know I hate it when you do that. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, I’m just teasing, you know I love you darling.”  
Mother Gothel stood up out of her chair and wanted to walk away to the small kitchen in the tower. [Y/N]’s moment was running away and if she didn’t do anything about it it would leave her for a full year.   
“Argh, I just want to see the floating lights!”  
“What?” Her mother turned around, a questioning look on her face.  
“Well, I was hoping you would take me to see the floating lights?”  
She didn’t sound sure of herself, and she hated that. Of course, she hadn’t expected her mother to immediately agree but this wasn’t what she had thought would happen.   
“O, you mean the stars?”  
Suddenly she felt sure about herself again. She knew they weren’t stars, she found the proof for that herself.  
“Actually, they aren’t stars. I studied the stars and they never appear on the same day each year but these do! Every year on my birthday, they appear in the sky so I thought they must be meant for me.”  
She started talking softer to the end. She never voiced her thoughts like this but after so many years of seeing them she was almost a hundred percent sure that they were in the sky for someone.  
For her.  
“I need to see them mother, in person, not just from my window. I want to know what exactly they are.”  
Her mother walked over to the window, slowly closing the curtains. “You want to go outside? Why [Y/N]?” Her mother walked over to her.  
“Look at you, as fragile as a flower. Still a little sapling, just a sprout. You know why we stay up in this tower!”  
Her voice had started to sing as she took [Y/N]’s long, golden hair in her hands.  
“I know but-” “That’s right, to keep you safe and sound dear. Guess I always knew this day was coming,”   
Another curtain got closed as her mother walked over to the last window, leaving [Y/N] standing alone in the middle of the room.  
“New that soon you want to leave the nest! Soon, but not yet!”  
“But-” “Shh” she sang as she patted [Y/N]’s head, “Trust me pet. Mother knows best!”  
She walked away laughing while continuing to sing.  
“Mother knows best, listen to your mother, it’s a scary world out there.”  
[Y/N] hadn’t realised that her mother was closer to her than she thought, scaring her while saying the last sentence.   
“Mother knows best, one way or another,” mother Gothel took ahold of [Y/N]’s wrists “something will go wrong, I swear!”  
Suddenly she was gone, leaving [Y/N] alone again. She didn’t like this at all but who was she to say something about it?  
Ruffians, thugs, poison ivy, quicksand. Cannibals and snakes… The plague!“ [Y/N] was shocked when she heard this. "No!” “Yes!” “But-” She didn’t get to finish her sentence as her mother continued again.   
“Also large bugs, man with pointy teeth and stop! No more! You’ll just upset me!”   
She already sounded upset, [Y/N] wanted to point that out but she got the feeling that saying something about it would only make the situation worse.  
“Mothers right here, mother will protect you.” She took [Y/N] in her arms as she held her close. “Darling here is what I suggest!”  
[Y/N] looked up, afraid of what was too come.   
“Skip the drama, stay with mama!”  
She was gone, the lights were gone and [Y/N] had the idea that staying here any longer would make her only more afraid. But who was she to say anything when she was nothing and all she knew was -  
“Mother knows best!”  
She was gone, left [Y/N] alone in a dark room. Why would she do that? What was going on?  
The candles, she could always lit the candles up. She knew where they were standing and she knew how to make a small fire to light them up.  
While walking around all of the candles to light them she noticed that it didn’t really work. Walking behind her was her mother - where did she came from - putting the candles out with her hands.  
“Mother knows best, take it from your mumsie, on your own you won’t survive.”  
Where did that mirror come from?   
“Sloppy, underdressed, immature, clumsy. Please, they’ll eat you up alive! Gullible, naive, positively grubby,” was there really so much wrong with her? She never thought about it that way. “Ditsy and a bit, well, uhm, vague! Plus I believe, getting kind off chubby,” [Y/N] looked down to her body. She never noticed that she started gaining weight. “I’m just saying ‘cause I love you!” Of course she loved [Y/N]. It was for her own good to know bout the things that were wrong about her, wasn’t it?  
“Mother understands, mother’s here to help you, all I have is one request!”  
The room was filled with lights again. Somehow, suddenly, the curtains got pulled back and her mother stood in the middle of the room. Without thinking about it [Y/N] ran towards her, almost knocking her mother over when she put her arms around her.  
“[Y/N]?”  
[Y/N] looked up, meeting her mothers eyes. “Yes, mother?”  
“Don’t ever ask to leave this tower. Again.” Her tone sounded serious and [Y/N] knew that she shouldn’t question it.  
“Yes, mother.”  
“Don’t forget it! You’ll regret it! Mother knows best!”  
Mother Gothel took [Y/N] close to her as [Y/N] cuddled her, afraid for what would happen if she ever didn’t listen to her mother.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IF YOU HAVE SOMEONE TALK ABOUT YOU THE SAME WAY AS MOTHER GOTHEL DOES TO THE READER IN THE END OF THIS CHAPTER AND IT MAKES YOU FEEL LESS AND WORTHLESS AND LIKE A PIECE OF SHIT THAN PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE GO TALK TO SOMEBODY ABOUT IT! YOU ARE WORTH IT, BEAUTIFUL, STRONG, CONFIDENT AND YOU DON’T DESERVE TO BE TREATED LIKE THIS!


	5. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> pretty sure that I started messing up the story after this chapter but since only two other chapters have been written after this one it can't be that bad, can it? *yes obviously it can jesus christ Vera stop asking yourself the obvious questions*

The majestic tower in the middle of the valley looked as if it had been left alone for ages, as if people that used to live there one day packed their stuff and never decided to return. Centuries old but still standing. He looked to the building in front of him in awe, not quite believing that there could be something so beautiful left over in this broken world.  
This wasn’t true, Bucky knew that. He knew about the old cities shattered around the world that could hold even more beauty than what he could ever think of.   
He had to get in the tower, somehow. Even though there was probably no one there, it was his only hope, his only way into getting back to his teammate and his only way to get the documents to the right place.  
But even if he could get in the tower, who could garantee him that there would be supplies up there to help him? If his thoughts were right, and they probably were, then there hadn’t been anybody up there for ages.   
It was his only chance, so what else could he do?  
The only other option left for him was even worser than the plan that he had started to form. Getting lost even more.

Coming closer to the tower Bucky started to realise that there wasn’t any door on the foot of the tower. Whoever built it must had another way of getting into the tower, but for now Bucky couldn’t find it.  
What he could find, however, was an entrance that was pretty hard to reach. All the way in the top of the tower was a window that seemed to be open. The only way of reaching is would be a hard one.  
Climbing. He knew how to do it and he knew about the risks. But was there even another way?   
Bucky muttered some words that even he couldn’t understand. There was no way for him to get up to that window. He had no climbing supplies. Even if he had, there would be no way that he would climb up there.  
He wasn’t afraid of the climbing or the heights.  
He was afraid of falling again.

After walking around the tower for a couple of minutes - they seemd like the longest hours of his life - he finally noticed something that looked like a door. It blended in with the rocks and stones surrounding it, and the plants growing over it showed that it hadn’t been used in a long time. Bucky tried to get as much of the vines of the old door and prayed to someone - anyone - that the door would open.  
After trying a couple of times and failing the door finally wanted to open. Much to Bucky’s surprise the door opened pretty easily, and what he saw in front of him was nothing.  
Okay, it was something. It was darkness.   
He couldn’t tell what was lying in front of him, if he would be walking towards the inside of the tower or if he would be walking towards a sudden death.  
Dissapointed that he didn’t have a flashlight with him (why even would he have that with him on a mission in clear daylight?) he decided to just place his right hand on the wall and follow it.  
He looked behind him one last time, facing the tower. There was only one way of finding out if the dark pathway would lead to the tower.  
He had to walk the pathway himself to find it out.

It took Bucky ages before he finally saw some sort of light ahead of him again. He had been walking on some stairs for what seemed to be hours.   
Shortly after entering the pathway he stumbled and almost fell on the steps of the stairs. After that he decided to take his time and not fall again.  
Sadly, that didn’t work. The stairs were irregular and that made him fall after almost every step he took.  
When he finally reached the light in front of him he noticed that he had reached some trapdoor. Bucky was happy that he had noticed early enough so that he wouldn’t be bumping his head against the ceiling.  
Bucky carefully pushed against the trapdoor to try and open it. Without fail it opened, and he had to close his eyes for a second to not get blinded.   
The dark pathway had lead him towards a room, and it took Bucky some time to realise what was all around him. Stepping in the room he noticed that it wasn’t left alone at all. It looked like somebody lived there, and that could only mean that there would be somebody to help him find his team back.   
Before Bucky could turn around and do something, everything turned black.

There was a weird guy laying on the ground in front of her. [Y/N] didn’t know where he came from (the stairs leading to the tower of course. Her mother hadn’t used them in years since she believed that [Y/N]’s hair would grow better if she climb up the tower using her hair.) or why he would even be in her tower.  
She had never seen the stranger before, and she was terrified. Thoughts about what her mother told her were flying through her head while she thought about what she had to do with him.  
He looked kind off creepy, with his halflong, brown hair and his armor on. Then there was the fact that his left hand was not only holding a couple of shattered papers but also being covered in some glove that didn’t appear on his right hand. He looked like the type of guy that would come in her tower at night to try and cut off her hair.   
She knocked him out using a frying pan. She, [Y/N], knocked this creepy guy out. Using a frying pan. A frying pan!   
There was time later to freak out about what she just did and think about what to do know. She had to get this guy somewhere where he wouldn’t be a threat towards [Y/N] or her hair.  
She looked around the tower, trying to find the perfect spot to put that guy.  
Her [Y/E/C] eyes fell on the purple wardrobe standing in the tower. Of course, the wardrobe! She could shut it and close him up inside of him, and he wouldn’t be a threat anymore.  
She had to try and get him in there before her mother would return home.

Getting him in the closet was a hard task, but it was nothing compared to letting him stay in there.  
Sure, moving him around was hard. Sometimes he seemed to slowly wake up again but whenever that happened she just hit him again with her frying pan.  
However, the moment she had him in the wardrobe, he feel out of it. How was he ever going to stay in there with the doors closed?  
That was a whole other thing to worry about. The moment she got him to stay in the wardrobe, the moment she closed the doors and stepped away he would only fall out again.  
She tried and tried over and over again to let him stay there. Whenever she thought that he finally would stay in he would eventually fall out. By now he had cuts and bruises all over his body and she could swear that some of fingers would be broken by now. Hell, hers would have been too if they weren’t only stuck between two doors but also pushed back by someone on the other side of the door.  
Somehow, it worked. [Y/N] managed to let that weird guy stay in the closet and not fall out. Slowly stepping back from the closet, still holding her frying pan in her hand, she started muttering to herself.  
“I’ve got a person in my closet. I’ve got a person in my closet. I’ve got a person. In my closet!”  
[Y/N] started laughing as she continued, swinging the frying pan from hand to hand.  
“Haha, too weak to handle myself, huh, mother? Say that to my frying pa-autsj!”  
She didn’t know how it happened, but while she was swinging her frying pan in her hands she accidentally hit herself on her head. Trying to ease the pain, her eyes fell on something lying on the floor.  
“Huh?”   
[Y/N] moved over to see a couple of documents laying on the floor. The guy must have hold them when he came in and dropped them when he fell on the ground, she thought.  
She picked them up, trying to make out what they said. Most of them where in a language she couldn’t understand and she had trouble trying to figure out what the others were saying that were in English.  
She picked up the last document, reading the headlines of them.

 

“Project Winter Soldier”

 

What was that supposed to mean?


	6. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So on wednesday my testweek will finally be over and I will finally have some time again to start writing again which is great. I am also terribly sorry for how this chapter (and the next) ended up because they are both just trash mkay

[Y/N] wanted to start to look through the document that she was holding when a calling from outside.  
“[Y/N]!”  
Quickly she gathered the documents together to put them away, while trying to make the room look as good as was possible. Some of the chairs that got knocked over while trying to get the strange guy in the closet were set right again and shoved as quickly as possible to the place were they came from.   
“Let down your hair!”  
She ran as quickly to the window as possible, feeling excited over what just happened. Maybe she could tell her mother about the human in the wardrobe. Okay, the maybe wasn’t even needed, she had to tell her mother about the human in her closet. Maybe that was they way that she could show her mother that she was ready to go to the world outside of the tower, to go and see the floating lights.  
“One moment mother!” She said after opening the window, while wrapping her hair around the hook so that she could throw it out of the window.  
“I have a big surprise!”  
[Y/N] laughed softly at the words her mother said.   
“I have one too!” she said, noticing that her mother had taken hold of her hair. Stepping out of the windowsill she started pull her hair back the tower in, taking her mother with her.   
“Ooh, I bet my surprise is bigger!”  
[Y/N] chuckled. “I seriously doubt it” she whispered while looking at the closet. She smiled as her mother sat down in the windowsill.  
“I brought back parsils. I’m making hazelnut soup for dinner, your favourite! Surprise!”   
[Y/N] smiled at her mother, knowing that what she wanted to tell her mother was something even bigger.  
“Well, mother, there is something that I want to tell you.”  
“Ow [Y/N] you know how I hate to leave you alone after a fight, especially when I have absolutly done nothing wrong.” [Y/N] watched as her mother walked over to the table, setting down the basket she was holding.  
“Okay, mother, I have been thinking alot about what you said earlier and-”  
Her mother turned around, the look on her face not happy.   
“I hope you’re not still talking about the stars.”  
Her tone was direct, and [Y/N] hoped that whatever was coming wasn’t going to be as awful as the morning had turned out.  
“Floating lights, and yes, I was leading up to that-”  
Her mother had turned around again, starting on the preparations of the hazelnut soup.  
“Because I really thought we dropped the issue, sweetheart.”  
“No mother I’m just saying that you think I’m not strong enough to handle myself out there.”  
“O darling I know you cannot handle yourself out there.”   
“But if you just-”  
[Y/N] was trying to reason with her mother, but was cut off while she had just started her sentence.  
“[Y/N], we’re done talking about this.”  
She looked in her mothers eyes, having a pleeding look on her own, trying to let her know that she had to tell this.  
“Trust me,”“[Y/N].” “I know"what I’m,” she laid her hands on the chair blocking the closet.   
“[Y/N]."Her mothers voice was stern but [Y/N] didn’t notice it as she just went on.  
"Oh come on.”  
“Enough with the lights!”  
That was the last straw. [Y/N] looked at her mother, shocked by what she had said, no screamed, at her.   
“You are not leaving this tower! Ever!”  
She had subconsiously moved herself closer to the closet behind her as her mother spoke, not trying to interrupt her as she was seriously angry right now. She let go of the chair, knowing that it wasn’t a great time to show what was inside of the wardrobe.  
Her mother sat down at another chair with a sigh.  
“Ugh, great. Now I’m the bad guy.”  
[Y/N] stood still were she was, trying to think of what just happened. Did she go to far? Was it her fault? It probably was, as she thought of it now.   
Her eyes met with the painting that she had made of the floating lights. There wasn’t a time that she wished to see them more than now, but she knew that if she dared to say any word about them again, the situation between her mother and her would even be worser than it was now.   
She looked away, back to the closet with the strange guy in it, as she was thinking of what to say. The silence was almost killing her and she wanted to fill it but did not dare to do it, afraid that one wrong word would cause her mother to snap at her again.   
“All I was going to say, mother, is that,” she looked at the painting again, not knowing if she had the words for it. “I now know what I want for my birthday.” She moved to stand in front of the chair, closer to her mother now. Her mother sat still in her chair, her head in her hands, not bothering to look up to see what [Y/N] had as an answer as she spoke.  
“And what is that?”  
“New paint?”  
What she said was more of an ask than a statement, and she looked up hopefully, before letting her head drop back, continuing what she was saying.  
“The aint made from the white shells you once brought me.”  
She sounded insecure and scared, but she hoped that her mother wouldn’t notice it.  
“That’s a very long trip [Y/N]. Almost three days time.”  
Her mother looked up at [Y/N]. The sound of her voice was dissapointing to say the least, as if the idea that [Y/N] had brought up right now was even worser than to go and see the floating lights outside of the tower.  
“I just thought that it was a better idea than the stars.”  
[Y/N] didn’t dare to look her mother in the eye as she said this, knowing that if she said it like this she was agreeing with her that they weren’t lights. She had her hands around her waist, feeling tired and small and she could only hope that the conversation would soon be over and forgotten.  
Her mother sighed as she stood up from the chair, her expression softened as she walked over to [Y/N].   
“You will be alright on your own?”  
[Y/N] let her waist go to hug her mother, happy that it seemed to be over now. Her mother hugged her closer as [Y/N] answered her.  
“I know I’m safe as long as I’m here.”  
Her mother kissed her head as she held her.

[Y/N] gave the basket with sweets to her mother as she started to make her way out of the tower.   
“I’ll be back in three days time. I love you very much dear.”  
“I love you more.”  
“And I love you most.”

[Y/N] stood in front of her closet, scared of what was inside it. Holding her frying pan, she moved slowly to remove the chair which closed the wardrobe. She stood beside it, taking a deep breath before moving her hair around so that it could open up the door.   
It took a while before the guy fell out of the closet, face first on the ground.


	7. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry for this chapter and the mess it contains...
> 
> Although I do not apologize for the last couple of sentences xD

His memories were foggy, showing him only snippets from what happened on the mission and afterwards but never showing the whole story, leaving Bucky weary and scared. Scared of what had happened, scared of where he ended up.  
He was tied to a chair and for a moment, Bucky thought that he was back at the starting point, back in the chair to face the terrors again, to face the memory loss again and lose everything that he had found.  
The one thing he did not remember, however, was having something stuck in his ear everytime they had placed him back in the chair. He looked up in confusion - Bucky didn’t recognize the room he had ended up in but it looked way too cozy to be property of HYDRA - and slowly to his side.  
Bucky was prepared for a lot of things but certainly not that. On his shoulder sat a small, green animal with its tongue stuck out into his ear.  
He was shocked to say the least and his confusion had left him completly as he jumped in the air, the little green thing falling on the ground with a small shriek.  
Bucky tried to find his breath again, looking around the room as he tried to find out where he was. The place definitly looked familiar - there was this feeling that he had been here before but it didn’t feel as a place he had stayed at, just as something that had passed by without noticing it properly - and Bucky’s fear off HYDRA started to lessen. That was, however, until he noticed that he was surrounded by something that looked a lot like hair that somehow seemed to keep him in the chair.  
His eyes followed the endless trail - how long would this go on? - as it went up the ceiling. Somewhere, between the beams of the ceiling, a girl sat, surrounded by the long, blond locks where she seemed to be the source of. She was holding something that looked like a frying pan, a frightened expression on her face.  
“Struggling, eh, struggling is pointless!”  
Her voice filled the air as she waved around with the frying pan.  
“Huh?”  
A small thug was heard as he saw the girl jumping down towards the floor. She was hiding in the darkness, trying to sound and look intimidating.  
“I know why you are here.”  
She was trying, really, but Bucky couldn’t help but smile at her lost attempt. She held the frying pan in front of her, almost as a warning on what she could do when he didn’t do what she liked. The rest of her seemed to say that she would run away and hide when that would happen.  
“I am not afraid of you.”  
“What?”  
He was confused to say the least. He looked at her as she came closer, slowly standing in the beam of sunlight in the middle of the room, suddenly looking more confident than she did when she was hiding in the shadow.  
“Who are you. And how did you find me.”  
The way she asked them didn’t make them sound like questions, but he knew they were. However, he didn’t know what to answer her, or even how to, as he was left stairing at the girl in front of him, trying to find his words again.  
“Aha.”  
She held the frying pan closer to her face, trying to get an answer out of the guy that was supposed to be a threath for her as she repeated her words.  
“Who are you,” she raised the frying pan so that she could use it when needed, “and how did you find me?”  
He coughed, not only being in possession of words again, but also with the idea on what to say, even though Bucky didn’t know if what he was going to say was the smartest thing to do. However, given the fact that he sat in a chair surrounded by hair things couldn’t really get that weirder.  
“I know not who you are, nor how I came to find you. But may I just say,”  
Bucky was taking a risk here but he had to find a way to get out of this position as fast as possible.  
“Hi.”  
Bucky decided to use his old charm that he used to have in the 40’s, hoping that it would work. He didn’t really believe in himself but he had to, hoping that it could still work.  
It obviously didn’t as it was followed by an awkard silence.  
“How are you doing? The name is Bucky Barnes.”  
The girl in front of him staired back wide eyed and Bucky started to regret every decision he had made in the past. He had just given out his name to a stranger, why on earth did he do that? She probably knew who he was and the things he did. He had made a mistake he had made a mistake he had-  
“Who else knows my location, Bucky Barnes?”  
Location? He barely knew where he was, let alone others to know it.  
“All right blondie.”  
“[Y/N].”  
He didn’t want to admit it but it was a beautiful name, one that really matched her, even though he couldn’t really tell why.  
“Here’s the deal. I was in a situation, having a casual stroll through the forest.” The mission wasn’t that casual but he wouldn’t tell that to her.  
“I came across your tower and-”  
Bucky suddenly realised that something was even more wrong with the situation than him being surrounded by so much hair. The documents. The documents that they had spent months to get that were now gone. He could swear that he had them with him when he came here so where were they now?  
“Where are the documents?”  
“I’ve hidden them. Somewhere you will never find them.”  
She seemed sure of herself as she stood in front of him, her frying pan still close to her - it was even more threatening than he wanted to admit actually - a somewhat cocky expression on her face. However, he only needed one glance across the room to already know where she had him them.  
“They are in that pot, aren’t they.”  
His world went black again as her frying pan collided with his face.

When he woke up again the little animal was stuck with its tongue in his ear, again.  
“Aah! Would you stop that!”  
He tried to get as much out of his ear as possible, which was hard to do when he couldn’t use his hands.  
“Now they are hidden somewhere you can’t find them.”  
He growled, still not sure if he should trust this girl. She had knocked him out only using a frying pan. In his whole life - which was a long one - he had never met someone who could do that. Heck, he could even stand in front of people twice as strong as Steve and they still couldn’t knock Bucky out. Which wasn’t that much of an accomplishment seeing that the Steve he used to knew, the little Steve, wasn’t as strong to begin with.  
She swinged her hair - or at least try to do that - as she held her frying pan only an inch away from his face.  
“So, what do you want to do with my hair, huh? To cut it?”  
“What?”  
She pushed the pan in his face, daring him to look towards her.  
“To sell it?”  
“No! The only thing I want to do with your hair is get out of it! Literally!”  
She didn’t seem to pay attention to what he was saying as she kept walking around the chair, some parts of her hair wrapping around the base of it as she was walking.  
“You- wait, you don’t want my hair?”  
She seemed relieved with this but her tone showed that she still didn’t fully trust him, something he would have done to.  
“Why on earth would I want your hair? Look, I was being chased, I saw a tower, I saw an entrance, I went in. End of story.”  
“You’re telling the truth?”  
“Yes!”  
He looked her in the eye, trying to let her know that he wasn’t lying, that this was the truth, that she should trust him. Okay, scratch that, she shouldn’t trust him, but she at least should trust his answer. She looked towards her shoulder as the little green thing appeared, walking over her arm towards him, examinating him and his face, all the while making weird noices. She slowly took away the frying pan that was directed towards his face as she walked away, turning away from him so that he couldn’t see nor hear what she was doing. She seemed to be talking towards the thing - should he really trust a girl that talked to animals? - as he tried to get out of the chair.  
“Okay, Bucky Barnes, I’m prepared to offer you a deal.”  
“Deal?”  
He didn’t like where this was heading at all.  
“Look this way.”  
She pulled her hair so that the chair turned - she was stronger than he first would have thought - as she opened a curtain, revealing a drawing behind it.  
“Do you know what these are?”  
“You mean the lanterns they do for the lost daughter?”  
He had heard of it through Steve who told him the tale of the village not that far away from the forest where the mission would take place. Appearantly, some rich man and his wife once had a girl but she got kidnapped, and ever since then they released lanterns on her birthday. Steve didn’t want to tell him more about it, insisting that he would find out more soon enough.  
“Lanterns. I knew they weren’t stars.”  
Her words were directed towards herself but Bucky couldn’t help but wonder what the meaning was behind that.  
“Well, tomorrow evening,” she took a small breath, trying to find some of the steadyness she had lost just a moment before, “they will light the night sky with these lanters. You,”  
She was intimidating him again with the frying pan but he honestly already felt intimidated, given that he had fallen on the ground just a moment before and there now was a chair on top of him and she was standing way higher than he was lying. The pan didn’t need to be add.  
“will act as my guide, take me to these lanterns, and return me home safely.”  
That was what she wanted? To see a couple of lanterns in the sky?  
“Then, and only then, will I return the documents to you. That is my deal.”  
“Yeah,” he growled, trying to turn himself and the chair so that he was lying on his side, “no can do. I have to return home as quickly as possible without any time wasting so unfortunatly, I can’t take you anywhere.”  
The expression on her face changed as she looked towards her shoulder and jumped to the ground, pulling him and the chair up again as she pulled her hair towards her.  
“Something brought you here, Bucky Barnes. Call it what you will, faith, destiny,”  
“A group of men.”  
“so I have made the decision to trust you.”  
“A horrible decision, really.”  
She had just met him, didn’t know what he was capable of and she didn’t know his past. The moment she would find out, that trust would be gone.  
“But trust me when I tell you this.”  
She pulled her hair so that the chair tumbled over, falling against her hand as she leaned against it, her face close to Bucky’s.  
“You can tear this tower apart, brick by brick, but without my help you will never find your precious documents.”  
He coughed slowly, trying to decrease the pressure that was hanging around the both of them.  
“Let me get this straight. I take you to see the lanterns, bring you back home, and you’ll give me back my documents?”  
Her tone was firm as she answered him.  
“I promise.”  
He looked at her, not sure if she was really serious or secretly joking. He had met a couple of people in the last few months who could be like that and he learned to not trust someone when they started talking like that.  
“And when I promise, I never, ever, break that promise.”  
He just raised his eyebrow. Her tone reminded him of birdman even if he didn’t want to make that comparison.  
“Ever.”  
“All right, I didn’t want to have to do this, but you leave me with no choice.”  
Did she? He couldn’t remember ever doing something like this, let alone it working, so why was he in some tower trying to do it?  
Why even was he in some tower, tangled up in hair?  
“Here comes the smoulder.”  
He was pretty sure he had heard that name somewhere but definitly never out of his own mouth.  
Bucky looked down for a moment, trying to get himself together. he was actually doing this, why was he actually doing this?  
But he had to look up. Trying to pull a face that the girls from his old times couldn’t resist he looked her in the eyes, but she just looked back at him with confusion.  
Jep, this wasn’t going to work at all.  
They kept stairing at each other for a while and at some point, Bucky was sure that he didn’t want to stop because that would mean that she had won the little stairing contest that he had just created, but he had to. He was sure that if he didn’t react soon they could stand in this position for hours, days, months, maybe even years and eventually turn into stone.  
“You know, this isn’t the reaction I had expected to get out of you.”  
He sighed in defeat, realising that there was nothing left for him to do.  
“Fine! I’ll take you to see the lanterns.”  
She suddenly got very excited, letting the chair go as she stood in the middle of the room, not quite believeing what had just happened.  
“Really?”  
Unfortunatly for Bucky, her excitement didn’t work in his advance, as the chair he was still sitting in started to tumble towards the floor, something that he hadn’t seen in what, five minutes?  
He fell face-first again, almost knocking himself out in the process.  
“Oops.”


	8. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finally wrote something that I actually like what is this?!?!?!?! THIS MADNESS
> 
> This is also the first time that I post something here before I post it on tumblr xD

Bucky wasn’t afraid to fall.  
Lie.  
He wasn’t afraid to fall down towards the ground.  
_Lie._  
He wasn’t afraid to be found by HYDRA, dragged to the nearest base just to be tested on again.  
_Lie. **Lie.Lie.**_  
Bucky kept muttering these words to himself, a sad, attempt at a comforting comment for himself. he had to get out of the tower, somehow, not quite trusting himself to get out of it by taking the stairs he used to get in.  
[Y/N] had said that she could get him there by using her hair, something he had quickly refused. He still didn’t trust it after just being tangled up in it and honestly, who would even trust that they would get down safely by hair.  
He wouldn’t.  
That’s why he was hanging from the windowsill, one of the knives that he had taken from the kitchen pushed inbetween the stones as a handle, the other one waiting to be placed.  
Bucky took one deep breath before starting his climb, still afraid of what was to come.  
He closed his eyes, pushing the second knife between the stones, moving his hands from the windowsills to the handles of both of the knives, falling down a little as he did so. He moved one of them so he could take it out, only to place it a few stones lower again. Repeating this process to slowly make his way down, not fast enough to actually get down without waisting time.  
Bucky looked up towards the window again, not yet seeing her on her way out of the tower.  
“Are you coming down too, Blondie?”  
He knew it was a huge step for her. After living there for her whole life, never setting a foot outside of the tower purely because her mother told her. Yeah, there were some things wrong with her but he knew how it was to do something even when your whole world around you told you that you shouldn’t.  
He continued on his path downwards, not paying attention to anything else but not falling down.  
That was until he heard her voice suddenly come closer. She was laughing, a beautiful sound that filled the air around him that made him look up to where it came from.  
Bucky almost immidiatly threw himself against the wall as she was dangerously close and the last thing that he needed was falling down. Not when he was almost there.  
A soft smile could be seen on his face as he watched her make her way towards the ground.

Stepping out of the tower was easy. Hanging on her hair as she made her way towards the ground? No big deal.  
But to actually let go, to step on the ground and to break every single rule her mother had given her?  
She didn’t know if she was ready for that. Hanging on the last part of her hair, just a feet above the ground, she couldn’t help but hesitate.  
She could go back. It would take a while to get herself in the tower again but she could do that, she knew she could.  
However, she had made it this far, and to know just turn around and not take that final jump…  
It felt like the choice a scared person would take. It felt like the choice she would have made had her mother been around.  
Yet her mother wasn’t around to see what [Y/N] was exactly doing, to scold her for it and make her feel bad for it.  
What she was doing was bad. [Y/N] wanted to turn around, to go to sleep and wake up and let the day be over and forgotten.  
Yet she was so close… so close to getting away, so close to fullfilling her dreams, the ones that had been so brutely thrown away by her mother. The only person who wasn’t there to judge her now.  
[Y/N] hesitantly lowered her foot towards the ground, letting her toes meet with the grass, immidiatly pulling it back when her foot brushed against the ground. She hadn’t expected it to feel like that, to feel the individual leaves between her toes and the tickling feeling against her had taken her by surprise.  
It had felt nice, even if it wasn’t exactly the way she had pictured it. She lowered her foot again, letting it get known with the unusual feeling that it gave her.  
She let her other foot follow, afraid that with every little step she took something would go wrong.  
Yet if that was the truth, than that something wasn't as big as she expected it to be. There wasn't a big explosion, no mother to yell at her that whatever she was doing was completly wrong.  
She hesitantly let go of her hair as she stood in the grass, unsure of herself but slowly feeling as if her choices weren't as bad as she thought at first.  
Without thinking about it she let her hair down towards the ground, looking up to Bucky who was still making his way slowly downwards.  
"Are you coming down too, Bucky?"  
As she waited for him, admiring the view around her and the fact that she was finally in the real world and not stuck in her tower she could swear that the look on his face wasn't as happy as hers by what she just said to him.

Bucky had lead her out of the valley and into the woods, something that looked so majestic yet so scary. [Y/N] wished that she hadn't made a mistake by trusting a total stranger to lead her towards her big dream.  
It was probably a mistake since they had been walking around the woods for a while, not paying attention to their surroundings - or at least, she wasn't - but not seeming to make any progress whatsoever.  
"Ehm, Bucky?"  
He turned around, her eyes meeting his ans she could swear that there was a certain uncertainty in his eyes that didn't make her feel any better.  
"Yes?"  
"Are you sure that we are walking in the right direction? I'm not trying to be mean or anything, and I know that you are the expert here and probably know where we are heading but we have been walking for what seems like ages and we haven't reached anything yet so I just wanted to ask if we are anywhere close to our final destination, wherever that may be?"  
Her rambling stopped and she just hoped that she hadn't offended him in some way. By the way his face started to look she only hoped that it couldn't be that bad.  
"This might be the best point to tell you that I have, indeed, no idea where we are whatsoever."  
"What!"  
She was sure that if there were any people around at that moment they would have come directly, even if there was a minimal distance of a 10 kilometers between those people and her and this, this, this-  
"You liar! You promised me that you would take me to the lanterns, not that you would get me lost!"  
"Hey, hey, stop screaming!"  
"Why would I stop screaming! I have put my full trust into you, someone I barely know and _and, **and-**_ " she started to walk away from him, tears streaming down her face as she realised her mistake, "and mother was right, all along! I should have never questioned her, I should have never let you out of that stupid closet or listen to you or even trust you!"  
She didn't know if Bucky had followed her or if she was completly alone right now. It didn't matter anymore.  
"I should have just listened."  
She sat down, surrounded by trees and grass and her hair and her worries and all she wanted to do was go back home.  
Yet she couldn't. She was hopelessly lost and had no idea how to get back home safely.  
Or even get back home.

Bucky couldn't help but feel sorry for the girl as he saw her sitting all alone. He felt sorry for the fact that he agreed to do something for her that he couldn't fulfill yet he din't tell her.  
He felt sorry that she had to feel this way, so utterly lost because of one small mistake and all that he wanted to do was help her and comfort her.  
Weird thought. He barely knew her, only her name and where she lived and that her eyes were holding some trust that he hadn't seen before, something that felt so good yet it shouldn't because he barely knew her.  
"[Y/N]?"  
She didn't look up or started screaming at him, which he figured was a good thing. Or not. It surely couldn't be a bad thing, or at least that was what he hoped.  
"Okay, so I might have not told you some really important information and I am really sorry for that, I am. Even if you don't believe me."  
He sat down next to her. Looking towards the grass as he realised that her words from earlier were probably true.  
"You shouldn't have trust me or listened to me. I am sorry for leading you somewhere I don't know where and I am sorry for making you upset and-"  
He suddenly stopped when he looked up, realizing that maybe, just maybe, this situation could just turn out better than both of them would have though in the first place.  
"And I am sorry for forgetting to mention that you might be a genius when you get upset."  
"What?"  
She looked up, confused by what he just said, her face stained with her tears.  
He looked back at her, nodding his head towards something in front of them. She didn't quite get what he meant by that until she realised that she should probably look at something that he was pointing out.  
In front of them stood a small building that seemed to come right out of a fairy tale. Right in front of it stood a sign with a few words written on it with a messy handwriting.  
_The snuggly duckling._  
"Well," she said as she stood up, wiping away some of the tears that were still on her face, "I do like ducklings."  
Bucky earned a friendly - although he would later say that it wasn't that friendly - nudge against his arm when he stood up and added his little, sarcastic 'yay'. Completed with a stupid look on his face.


End file.
